Around the time I joined headfi lol. Maybe a bit before that but I don't think Bose IE2s with my Fuze really count for much in terms of "audiophile". lol More like audiofool. :P

i see... i did "waste" a bit of money on lower end gears and didnt really just go straight to upgrading. but i wonder how much money we have spent... if you were using bose ie2s with fuze, thats probably better than what i was using. i was using ipod shuffle/nano or android phone (128kbps or 256kbps mp3 files btw) with 10 dollars sony earbuds or ipod earbuds or the 5 dollars coby jammerz (my first iem ever). looking back, i probably have spent 1000 to 1500 bucks for just messing around when i can spend it on high end gears... im not sure if i regret my purchases though... its nice to play around with different stuff but at the end of the day, like what my parents always say to tell me to stop buying audio gears, i only have one pair of ears. so how about you? ever kept track of how much you spent?

i see... i did "waste" a bit of money on lower end gears and didnt really just go straight to upgrading. but i wonder how much money we have spent... if you were using bose ie2s with fuze, thats probably better than what i was using. i was using ipod shuffle/nano or android phone (128kbps or 256kbps mp3 files btw) with 10 dollars sony earbuds or ipod earbuds or the 5 dollars coby jammerz (my first iem ever). looking back, i probably have spent 1000 to 1500 bucks for just messing around when i can spend it on high end gears... im not sure if i regret my purchases though... its nice to play around with different stuff but at the end of the day, like what my parents always say to tell me to stop buying audio gears, i only have one pair of ears. so how about you? ever kept track of how much you spent?

Well over $5,000 in total. Probably somewhere around $6,500 plus total give or take. If you minus the gear I've sold to fund more gear a bit less. But in total around that mark.

When I first started I'm sure I spend a bit less than $1000.00 on IEMs and replacement DAPs. I was also buying them for family members so including that cost as well (bose IE2, E260, E280, Fuzes etc).

how about matching price? like for the 830 bucks that the dx100 costs?

Yeah, Head-fi is a blissful, endless money pit - gotta love it!

To answer your question with regards to portable vs desktop performance, there simply is no comparison. Of course there are good buys and bad buys in both categories so I'm using an equal comparison. Then transportable is a step above truly portable but again still not desktop by any means. The differences in size just allows far better implementation of components, especially the power supply section. Also they are far cheaper to design/build as opposed to cramming all those smd parts into a small device, complete with batteries and sometimes a screen etc.

I was quite disappointed with my dx100 and sold it as pretty quickly. But I didn't have much need for listening on the go & I wasn't going to swap it for desktop performance so it went.

I think your plan of getting the 901 (which I'm sure will be impressive) and a high value desktop amp will be a great middle ground for you.

Well over $5,000 in total. Probably somewhere around $6,500 plus total give or take. If you minus the gear I've sold to fund more gear a bit less. But in total around that mark.

When I first started I'm sure I spend a bit less than $1000.00 on IEMs and replacement DAPs. I was also buying them for family members so including that cost as well (bose IE2, E260, E280, Fuzes etc).

ouch, sorry for your wallet. i gave my dad the sennheiser pxc450 because he travels and may need an active noise cancelling headphone. now knowing that he doesnt even use it because the only time he listens to music is in cars, i should probably sell it instead to fund my other purchases. i have a bunch of 10 dollars iems that i almost never touch now and now i use only full sized headphones. maybe if im going to start my audio journey again, i may just skip the lower end stuff and go straight into hifi... how about you? if you start your audio journey again, do you think you will skip the low and mid fi? or at least only spend a little on them and jump to hifi?

To answer your question with regards to portable vs desktop performance, there simply is no comparison. Of course there are good buys and bad buys in both categories so I'm using an equal comparison. Then transportable is a step above truly portable but again still not desktop by any means. The differences in size just allows far better implementation of components, especially the power supply section. Also they are far cheaper to design/build as opposed to cramming all those smd parts into a small device, complete with batteries and sometimes a screen etc.

I was quite disappointed with my dx100 and sold it as pretty quickly. But I didn't have much need for listening on the go & I wasn't going to swap it for desktop performance so it went.

I think your plan of getting the 901 (which I'm sure will be impressive) and a high value desktop amp will be a great middle ground for you.

mind explaining why the dx100 didnt work out for you? because it may be a hidden dealbreaker thats not going to work out for me as well... so was it sound quality not quite up there? UI?

ouch, sorry for your wallet. i gave my dad the sennheiser pxc450 because he travels and may need an active noise canceling headphone. now knowing that he doesn't even use it because the only time he listens to music is in cars, i should probably sell it instead to fund my other purchases. i have a bunch of 10 dollars iems that i almost never touch now and now i use only full sized headphones. maybe if im going to start my audio journey again, i may just skip the lower end stuff and go straight into hifi... how about you? if you start your audio journey again, do you think you will skip the low and mid fi? or at least only spend a little on them and jump to hifi?

I'd have skipped the Bose all together lol. That would have saved me at least $500.00. I kinda did make a big jump starting with the IE8s IMO. In those terms I don't regret the purchases as it gave me a feel of each tier so I knew what I was dealing with. But you do end up wasting some money selling and repurchasing items. But for me it wasn't really a waste in terms of experience you gain. So there are pros and cons.

Regarding customNuts comments I agree on a good desktop setup (also quite expensive depending on what you get) outclassing any portable rig. But I'm also curious what firmware was on his DX100 as it wasn't worth owning up until 1.1.7. Then 1.2.7 made it at least comparable to my desktop rig in terms of overall sound quality. Having this in a portable rig is amazing for me. I didn't expect to get such performance out of this product but ibasso has really done it with the latest firmware update. Using it with a portable amp just makes it all the more better.

I'd have skipped the Bose all together lol. That would have saved me at least $500.00. I kinda did make a big jump starting with the IE8s IMO. In those terms I don't regret the purchases as it gave me a feel of each tier so I knew what I was dealing with. But you do end up wasting some money selling and repurchasing items. But for me it wasn't really a waste in terms of experience you gain. So there are pros and cons.

Regarding customNuts comments I agree on a good desktop setup (also quite expensive depending on what you get) it will outclass any portable rig. But I'm also curious what firmware was on his DX100 as it wasn't worth owning up until 1.1.7. Then 1.2.7 made it at least comparable to my desktop rig in terms of overall sound quality.

thats true on the feels of each tier. my first "decent" gear was the etymotic research hf5, man, that jump from coby jammerz to ety hf5 was pretty huge... i gave my hf5 to my friend and 2 weeks later he said its broken , RIP my first step into audio... and i asked you before but i will ask you again because last time you didnt really answer me , do the latest batches come with the latest firmware installed? also on the amp part, is it justifiable to use an amp with it considering the dx100's amp should already be really good?

thats true on the feels of each tier. my first "decent" gear was the etymotic research hf5, man, that jump from coby jammerz to ety hf5 was pretty huge... i gave my hf5 to my friend and 2 weeks later he said its broken , RIP my first step into audio... and i asked you before but i will ask you again because last time you didnt really answer me , do the latest batches come with the latest firmware installed? also on the amp part, is it justifiable to use an amp with it considering the dx100's amp should already be really good?

As I said it's not necessary but you can make it better depending on terms of synergy and preference. So the fact that you have the option is quite nice. I don't know if the latest DX100 comes with 1.2.7 standard. You'd have to contact ibasso regarding this. But I'm sure they would as this is their latest firmware release and it would be in their best interest to do so.

mind explaining why the dx100 didnt work out for you? because it may be a hidden dealbreaker thats not going to work out for me as well... so was it sound quality not quite up there? UI?

Quote:

Originally Posted by lee730

I'd have skipped the Bose all together lol. That would have saved me at least $500.00. I kinda did make a big jump starting with the IE8s IMO. In those terms I don't regret the purchases as it gave me a feel of each tier so I knew what I was dealing with. But you do end up wasting some money selling and repurchasing items. But for me it wasn't really a waste in terms of experience you gain. So there are pros and cons.

Regarding customNuts comments I agree on a good desktop setup (also quite expensive depending on what you get) outclassing any portable rig. But I'm also curious what firmware was on his DX100 as it wasn't worth owning up until 1.1.7. Then 1.2.7 made it at least comparable to my desktop rig in terms of overall sound quality. Having this in a portable rig is amazing for me. I didn't expect to get such performance out of this product but ibasso has really done it with the latest firmware update. Using it with a portable amp just makes it all the more better.

I'm not sure of the number on the firmware but it would have been the earlier one. I was an early adopter and only kept it for a month. So that's assuring as firmware can improve things noticeably. So Reddraggon your best listening to guys like lee730 who has had both firmwares. Also, to consider was I own balanced desktop rigs that blew the dx100 out of the water so my ears had been devirginised so to speak! But when I compared it to even cheaper components like the Yulong d100, the ibasso felt short. The D18 was another big step up.

@reddragon, I have spent a fortune going up the ladder in head-fi. Now I highly recommend the journey, you don't want to go straight to the top - but - I could have saved heaps by skipping a few steps. I would highly recommend going straight for that awesome value section around 4-500 bucks give or take. So iem's go for the likes of senn ie8/ie80. Dacs - Yulong D100 and up, Audio-gd nfb-10se and up, headphones senn hd600/650, grado ps500, denon d2/5/7000 . And if going desktop, go balanced! You can for peanuts these days.

I have bought and sold a lot of devices/cans around this value so if you have any questions, let me know.

I'm not sure of the number on the firmware but it would have been the earlier one. I was an early adopter and only kept it for a month. So that's assuring as firmware can improve things noticeably. So Reddraggon your best listening to guys like lee730 who has had both firmwares. Also, to consider was I own balanced desktop rigs that blew the dx100 out of the water so my ears had been devirginised so to speak! But when I compared it to even cheaper components like the Yulong d100, the ibasso felt short. The D18 was another big step up.

@reddragon, I have spent a fortune going up the ladder in head-fi. Now I highly recommend the journey, you don't want to go straight to the top - but - I could have saved heaps by skipping a few steps. I would highly recommend going straight for that awesome value section around 4-500 bucks give or take. So iem's go for the likes of senn ie8/ie80. Dacs - Yulong D100 and up, Audio-gd nfb-10se and up, headphones senn hd600/650, grado ps500, denon d2/5/7000 . And if going desktop, go balanced! You can for peanuts these days.

I have bought and sold a lot of devices/cans around this value so if you have any questions, let me know.

Yeah customNuts it's a night and day difference between the first firmware and the latest (I'm also an early adopter from the first batch). If you were to do a side by side comparison you wouldn't believe they were the same unit lol. Big improvement. I'm honestly at that point with my desktop rig where I feel I'll have to jump to the D2 DAC ($1,400) to really get a big step up from what I have currently. The DACport LX is an amazing piece of kit and I thought I had maxed it's performance on my UHA6 MKII. Not the case at all the Triad really took it to another level and showed the full potential of even the LX.

I'm not sure of the number on the firmware but it would have been the earlier one. I was an early adopter and only kept it for a month. So that's assuring as firmware can improve things noticeably. So Reddraggon your best listening to guys like lee730 who has had both firmwares. Also, to consider was I own balanced desktop rigs that blew the dx100 out of the water so my ears had been devirginised so to speak! But when I compared it to even cheaper components like the Yulong d100, the ibasso felt short. The D18 was another big step up.

@reddragon, I have spent a fortune going up the ladder in head-fi. Now I highly recommend the journey, you don't want to go straight to the top - but - I could have saved heaps by skipping a few steps. I would highly recommend going straight for that awesome value section around 4-500 bucks give or take. So iem's go for the likes of senn ie8/ie80. Dacs - Yulong D100 and up, Audio-gd nfb-10se and up, headphones senn hd600/650, grado ps500, denon d2/5/7000 . And if going desktop, go balanced! You can for peanuts these days.

I have bought and sold a lot of devices/cans around this value so if you have any questions, let me know.

Yeah customNuts it's a night and day difference between the first firmware and the latest (I'm also an early adopter from the first batch). If you were to do a side by side comparison you wouldn't believe they were the same unit lol. Big improvement. I'm honestly at that point with my desktop rig where I feel I'll have to jump to the D2 DAC ($1,400) to really get a big step up from what I have currently. The DACport LX is an amazing piece of kit and I thought I had maxed it's performance on my UHA6 MKII. Not the case at all the Triad really took it to another level and showed the full potential of even the LX.

Kind of unfair to compare L3 to uha-6s mkii because the L3 is a desktop amp right?